STOCK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND SAFEGUARDING OF INVENTORY SHRINKAGE IN LARGE-SCALE RETAIL OUTLETS IN AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA: AN EMPIRICAL REVIEW

Most large-scale retail outlets in Akwa Ibom State are affected by the high rate of inventory shrinkage attributed to shoplifting, theft, administrative errors and fraud. It is evident that inventory shrinkage is a cankerworm that could seriously threaten the survival of large-scale retail outlets except there are effective stock management strategies. The main purpose of the study was to determine the influence of stock taking strategies on safeguarding of inventory shrinkage in Akwa Ibom State. A cross sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The purposive and convenience sampling techniques were employed to select 60 respondents comprised of 30 managers and 30 accounting officers from 30 large-scale retail outlets in Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Oron and Uyo metropolis. A 16-item researchers’ made instrument entitled “Stock Management Strategies and Safeguarding of Inventory Shrinking (SMS-SIS) Questionnaire” was used to collect data for the study. The data collected from the instrument were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer research question, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant much influence of stock taking and stock auditing on safeguarding of inventory shrinkage in large-scale retail outlets in Akwa Ibom State. On the basis of the findings, it was concluded that if safeguarding of inventory shrinkage in large-scale retail outlets is desired, there is need for managers to adopt effective stock management strategies such as prompt stock taking and stock auditing. It is therefore recommended among others that managers of large-scale retail outlets in Akwa Ibom State should always employed the services of both internal and external auditors to ensure independent review, examination, investigation and analysis of inventory for prompt detection of errors and fraud, which could lead to shrinkage.

JEL: E20, E22, L60, L81